Religious Technology Center (RTC) is a nonprofit religious organization formed in 1982 to preserve, maintain and protect the Scientology religion and is a Church of the Scientology religion.

Religious Technology Center holds the ultimate ecclesiastical authority regarding the standard and pure application of L. Ron Hubbard’s religious technologies. RTC is not part of the management structure of the Church and is not involved in its day-to-day affairs.

RTC holds the Dianetics and Scientology trademarks and service marks, which Founder L. Ron Hubbard donated to RTC in 1982. Earlier, Mr. Hubbard himself oversaw the practice of the religion and registered as trade and service marks many of the religion’s identifying words and symbols, such as “Dianetics” and “Scientology.”

These registered marks provided a legal mechanism for ensuring that Scientology religious technologies are ministered in exact accordance with the scripture and not altered by misappropriation or improper use. They also provide a legal mechanism to prevent anyone from offering some altered or inauthentic version of Dianetics and Scientology and representing it as the real technology.

RTC grants the Church of Scientology International (CSI), the mother church of the Scientology religion, the right to use the trademarks and to license their use to all other Scientology Churches.

While CSI serves as the mother church and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination, propagation and defense of the Scientology religion and the various Scientology Churches, Religious Technology Center serves as the ultimate protector of the religion. While each Scientology organization and, indeed, every Scientologist is expected to enforce the standard application of Scientology scripture, RTC is the final arbiter of orthodoxy.